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(★)(Translated by Aiko Itoo and Graeme Wilson)／ Sooseki Natsume´s prolific production ranged from his early humor and satire to the profound psychological and philosophical insight of his maturity. The three short works contained in this volume --compounds of bufoonery and seriousness-- catch Sooseki at the crossroads in his mind, beginning to reject the lighter poetic and romantic elements for a more prosaic and realistic style.／ They are among Sooseki´s best, and brilliantly display the variety of his temperament and thought, the richness of his humor, and the sureness of his satirical touch. ´Ten Nights of Dream´ comprises a collection of ten short stories of dreams. Couched in a surrealistic atmosphere, they disclose the essence of Sooseki´s inner uneasiness. ´Hearing Things´ and ´The Heredity of Taste´ are fantasticated tales of Japanese life in the early 1900s. Together, these masterpieces of the art of fiction reveal the attitudes of a major writer at a turning point in his career.／ ◆Sooseki Natsume (1867-1916) is widely considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period (1868-1914). After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, Sooseki taught high school before spending two years in England on a Japanese government scholarship. He returned to lecture in English literature at the university. Numerous nervous disorders forced him to give up teaching in 1908 and he became a full-time writer for the Asahi Simbun. In addition to fourteen novels, Sooseki wrote haiku, poems in the Chinese style, academic papers on literary theory, essays, autobiographical sketches, and fairy tales.／ Aiko Itoo was born and educated in Tokyo. From 1942 to 1953, she worked as a translator and broadcaster with the BBC, in 1949 becoming the London correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun. In 1952, she joined the staff of the newly established ´Japan Quarterly´. Her translating activities extended beyond journalism into the fields of film, radio, theater, and literature.／ Graeme Wilson was born in London and educated in England and Germany. He served as British Civil Aviation Representative in the Far East following World War II. While a member of the P.E.N. Club of Japan, he translated and published a considerable body of ancient and modern Asian poetry, including Sakutaro Hagiwara´s modern poems in ´Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems (1969)´. With Ikudo Atsumi, he published ´Three Contemporary Japanese Poets (1972).´／ ▼TABLE OF CONTENTS／ ●Introduction／ ●Ten Nights of Dream[夢十夜]／ ●Hearing Things[琴のそら音]／ ●The Heredity of Taste[趣味の遺伝]／) |
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